{"slug": "i-transferred-my-codebase-before-payment-don-t-make-my-mistake", "title": "I transferred my codebase before payment. Don't make my mistake.", "summary": "A Pakistani software founder who built a $100K MRR AI SaaS over three years transferred his domain and full proprietary codebase to James De Berardine, Director of NOTO nightclub in Philadelphia, as part of a $200K acquisition. De Berardine made six written promises to fund a $30K deposit but paid only $1,000, retained the code for two months, and later called the transaction 'non-authentic,' claiming the code had 'no value' and threatening to delete it. The founder has filed complaints with the FBI IC3 and Pennsylvania authorities.", "body_md": "I am a Pakistani software founder who built a $100K MRR AI SaaS over three years. In May 2026, I negotiated a $200K acquisition with **James De Berardine**, Director of NOTO nightclub in Philadelphia.\n\nI transferred my domain and full proprietary codebase to his AWS environment in good faith. He made six written promises to fund a $30K deposit. He paid $1,000. He retained my code for two months while demanding endless diligence. When pressed to close, he called the transaction \"non-authentic,\" claimed the code had \"no value,\" and threatened to delete it.\n\nI have filed complaints with FBI IC3 and Pennsylvania authorities. Full documented timeline with screenshots of his own messages:", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-transferred-my-codebase-before-payment-don-t-make-my-mistake", "canonical_source": "https://dev.to/clickableman/i-transferred-my-codebase-before-payment-dont-make-my-mistake-14d3", "published_at": "2026-07-09 01:01:14+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-09 01:11:14.656591+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-startups", "ai-products"], "entities": ["James De Berardine", "NOTO nightclub", "FBI IC3", "Pennsylvania"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-transferred-my-codebase-before-payment-don-t-make-my-mistake", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-transferred-my-codebase-before-payment-don-t-make-my-mistake.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-transferred-my-codebase-before-payment-don-t-make-my-mistake.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-transferred-my-codebase-before-payment-don-t-make-my-mistake.jsonld"}}